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Today continues a look at our NCAA Division I Top 20
rankings.For more, visit LaxMagazine.com/LMranks. Follow
@LacrosseMag on Twitter and Tweet using the
hashtag #LMranks.The countdown will resume
Friday with profiles of the sixth-ranked teams in NCAA Division I
men and women.

Power Ratings

Offense: 4*Defense: 5Goalkeeping: 3Draw Control: 3
*Out of 5

Top Returner

M Maddy Morrissey (Sr.)
The third-year midfielder notched 25 goals and will see an
increased role in the Blue Devil attack with the departures of Emma
Hamm and Kim Wenger. "[With] the way she's trained over the course
of the last two seasons and this fall, I think she's really ready
to step forward and have a great, breakout season," Duke coach
Kerstin Kimel said.

X-Factor

D Gabby Moise (So.)
In her first career start last season, the defender held North
Carolina's eventual top scorer Abbey Friend goalless. Tabbed "the
quickest, most athletic kid on our team" by Kimel, Moise will again
play the role of shutdown defender for the Blue Devils this season.
If she continues to improve her skills as a team-defender, Duke
will have one of the nation's top defensive units.

What's New?

For the second straight year, Duke welcomes one of the nation's
finest recruiting classes. Headlining the class is midfielder Maddy
Acton, who racked up 264 goals in her high school career, and
played with Trimble and Smith on the U.S. under-19 women's national
team. Acton should make an immediate impact for the Blue Devils.
U19 team goalie Kelsey Duryea also joins Duke and is recovering
from an injury but could play a role. "Even with limited movement
in the goal cage, you can see how quick her hands are, and she's
got a super stick," Kimel said.

What's Not?

Duke will have a familiar face on the sideline this year. Class
of 2007 graduate Kristen Waagbo returns to Durham as an assistant
coach for the Blue Devils after two years as an assistant at the
U.S. Naval Academy. Waagbo, who helped coach a Navy offense that
produced a Patriot League-record 306 goals last season, was Duke's
all-time assists leader as a player. She will look to spark the
young Blue Devil offense. "It's been fun and exciting to have
someone back in our program who was here during a time when our
offense was really prolific," Kimel said.

2012 Recap

Record: 12-7 (3-2 ACC)

In a Nutshell: Duke's senior class had the
injury bug last season. Kat Thomas missed the first 13 games of the
season, Bridget Nolan sustained a season-ending injury in just the
third game, and Casey Beyel was sidelined by mid-March. Kim Wenger
and Emma Hamm took on even greater roles and kept the team a
contender. Martin described the season as feeling "unfinished," and
although the Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals, they
failed to close out several great first-half performances. Duke
took early leads in postseason contests against both Maryland and
Northwestern, but could not keep up its performance for the
entirety of either game.

High Point: A 10-9 victory over Maryland in the
conference opener that propelled the Blue Devils into a five-game
midseason winning streak. Coming back from a two-goal second-half
deficit, Duke rallied behind Morrissey and Trimble to defeat the
Terps for the first time since 2008.

Low Point: A messy 4-2 loss to rival North
Carolina that extended Duke's losing streak to three games. The
Blue Devils put together their best defensive performance of the
season, but their offense couldn't capitalize. Duke's two-goal
performance marked the lowest total for the program since 1997.

Best Case: Trimble and fellow sophomore Kerrin
Maurer step up, and the freshmen class led by Acton and Kelci
Smesko has an immediate impact for the Blue Devil offense. Behind
this young talent, Duke makes the NCAA semifinals for the second
time in three years.

Worst Case: The vacancies in the midfield and
the cage left by last year's senior class prove too difficult for
this young squad to fill. Unable to replace the production of
Wenger and Hamm, the inexperienced Blue Devils end their streak of
NCAA quarterfinals appearances, bowing out in the first round.

Inside Scoop

Coach Kerstin Kimel's comments on...

A Kerrin Maurer (So.)
"You're fortunate at a place like Duke to coach some really great
players, and Kerrin has tremendous game sense and instincts —
can see things starting to happen before you've even thought about
it, dreamt it in your head, which is a really special gift that you
can't teach anybody. So, she last year was given a daunting task of
playing behind the X and controlling the ball quite a lot for us as
a freshman. And with that, we knew she was going to make a lot of
mistakes.

"Kerrin was really hard on herself, and I mean really hard on
herself despite the fact that she did quite a lot for our team. And
so, this year, I've gotten her to the point where she can reflect
back on last year and not think, 'Oh, I did terrible.' She can look
back and realistically say, 'I did a lot as a freshman in a really
important role for a team that went to the NCAA quarterfinals. So I
think that she's matured a lot in the past year, and I think our
goal for her is not to just be pigeonholed into being the kid who
plays behind the cage. We want to do other things with her. She's
got unbelievable hands, and she's a great shooter, but right now
she's the kid on our team who can make things happen and see the
game happening before things actually start happening on the field.
So she's a pretty special player in that regard."

M Taylor Trimble (So.)
"Taylor has really worked hard. Last year, she had an ankle
injury. That really limited her ability to get up and down the
field well and defend for us. One of the things that we're wanting
to do with her this year is that she wants to be more involved in
the full-field play. That's something that we're hoping we can make
happen. She's a super-gifted player off the ball. She can catch and
shoot and get herself open as good as any other player on our team,
so our goal for her is to [grow her] game — to not just be an
off-ball player. 'Let's see if we can really work on our dodging so
that you can make things happen with the ball in your stick.'
Likewise, get better on the defensive end of the field. And then
Taylor will be instrumental in our draw as well."

A Maddy Acton (Fr.)
"She's super. She's one of the finest athletes we have on our team
from top to bottom. She's strong. She's fast. She's got a great
stick. She's a great learner. She learned a lot this fall, and when
I say a great learner, I mean she's able to listen to what you're
saying and do her best to try to apply it. She's great at not
really sweating her mistakes, kind of accepting the fact that as a
young player, you're going to make a lot of mistakes, and it's
going to make you better. We expect her to play a big role for us
all over the field. She's been just a dream."

Rival Coaches Say

"They're really dynamic. Not only do they have contributors from
last year's team, but they've got some really, really great
freshmen that are in the lineup. Taylor Trimble did a great job for
them last year, and they're returning Makenzie Hommel, the lefty
attacker. She's just a great, great player. They are really
dynamic. They move the ball extremely well. And Kelci Smesko looked
really good this fall too."